The central coordinating body of the United Methodist Church
is known as the Connectional Table (CT). It consists of about 59 United
Methodist leaders excluding staff). There are 47 voting members. It is the only
group meeting regularly between general conferences that includes
representatives of the major official denominational power structures. The problem is that the CT’s make-up is not
representative of the global UMC membership. Consider the following:

THE WESTERN JURISDICTION HAS LESS THAN 3 PERCENT OF THE UMC MEMBERSHIP,
YET IT HAS 17 PERCENT OF THE SEATS ON THE CT.

BY WAY OF CONTRAST, AFRICA HAS 35 PERCENT OF THE UMC
MEMBERSHIP, YET ONLY 6.4 PERCENT OF THE SEATS ON THE CT.

In modern times, the Western Jurisdiction has been notorious
for its liberal theology; no doubt, some of it flows from United Methodism’s
Claremont Seminary in California. And, the Western Jurisdiction has
consistently lagged far behind the other U.S. jurisdictions in how much of its
assigned share of apportionments it pays.

Of the five active Western Jurisdiction bishops three (60%)
are presidents of a denominational agency’s board of directors. One of the
remaining two has been elected to become the next president of the Council of
Bishops in 2014. No other region in the UMC comes close to having as large a
portion of its bishops in such prominent leadership positions. One way to
address this inbalance would be to discontinue electing bishops as presidents
of boards and agencies.

The Western Jurisdiction is over-represented in the
leadership ranks of the UMC, at the expense of United Methodism in Africa. This
matter should have top priority for correction.